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Your Weekly Watch List

Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan Save Another Multiverse in American Born Chinese

Plus: The Gremlins return, and Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, and Arnold Schwarzenegger hit the small screen.
  • Michelle Yeoh in American Born Chinese (Photo: Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)
    Michelle Yeoh in American Born Chinese (Photo: Disney/Carlos Lopez-Calleja)

    Looking for your next binge-watch, or just need to fill an hour? Welcome to Your Weekly Watch List, our curated collection of the best shows on television. Here’s what to watch from Sunday, May 21 through Saturday, May 27.

    This week, American Born Chinese’s stellar Asian cast battles the end of the world, Platonic reunites Neighbors stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as middle-aged BFFs, and FUBAR tosses Arnold Schwarzenegger back into the action-comedy game.

    American Born Chinese

    Wednesday, Disney+ (Full Season)

    It’s recent Oscar winners everywhere in Disney’s action comedy series based on the graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. Everything Everywhere All At Once stars Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan re-team in a fantasy coming-of-age story about Jin (Ben Wang), a Chinese American teen saddled with mentoring the new kid in high school, socially awkward immigrant Wei-Chen (Jim Liu). This is bad enough for a kid just trying to fit in, but Jin’s dilemma deepens once he finds out his new friend is actually a fugitive from another world.

    Directed by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Destin Daniel Cretton, American Born Chinese is steeped in Chinese mythology and packed with martial arts action, with the Oscar winner Yeoh on hand as the goddess offering guidance to the teens attempting to save the world. All eight episodes premiere on Wednesday.

    Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai

    Tuesday, Max

    In this animated prequel series, the impossibly adorable fuzzballs from the original Gremlins movies get their own origin story. Gremlins executive producer Steven Spielberg and director Joe Dante are both involved in the 10-episode series, set in 1920s Shanghai, where young Sam Wing (Izaac Wang, voicing the character played by Keye Luke in the film) first comes across the cuddly Mogwai, which you should never get wet or feed after midnight. Featuring an all-star voice cast including Sandra Oh, Ming-Na Wen, and B.D. Wong, the first two episodes of Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai drop Tuesday.

    The Clearing

    Wednesday, Hulu

    A real-life Australian cult is the basis for this fictionalized thriller about a woman (Teresa Palmer) forced to confront her time as part of a secretive society accused of kidnapping children (and seemingly dyeing them all blonde enough to recall the creepy kids from Village of the Damned). Miranda Otto plays the charismatic leader, while fellow Aussie star Guy Pearce fills out the impressive cast in Hulu’s limited series based on the book by J.P. Pomare.

    Platonic

    Wednesday, Apple TV+

    Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne re-team with their Neighbors director Nicholas Stoller on Apple’s comedy series about a pair of old college friends reconnecting in middle age. To the increasing confusion of their friends and her wary but understanding husband (Luke Macfarlane), Will (Rogen), a divorced brewmaster, and the restless Sylvia attempt to recapture the non-romantic kinship of their wilder days, complete with destructive hijinks involving everything from a pet iguana to a rogue racoon. Rogen and Byrne’s comic chemistry is a given, and Platonic’s mix of midlife crises and slapstick shenanigans gives each an equal chance to shine. The first three of the series’s 10 episodes stream Wednesday.

    FUBAR

    Thursday, Netflix (Full Season)

    Just when an aging action star thinks he’s out, the revelation that his adult daughter is secretly a spy drags him back in. At any rate, that’s the dilemma former CIA spook Luke Brunner (Arnold Schwarzenegger) finds himself in, as his long-awaited peaceful retirement is put on hold after his daughter, undercover CIA operative Emma (Monica Barbaro), winds up on the trail of a world-imperiling conspiracy. For the 75-year-old Schwarzenegger, FUBAR’s plot about jumping back into the over-the-top action setpieces of your younger days is apt, even if Arnold still looks ridiculously capable of wielding a rocket launcher and leaping out of the occasional helicopter — at least with Netflix’s special effects and stunt teams at his disposal.

    If You Have...

    An Hour

    Wanda Sykes: I’m an Entertainer: Tuesday, Netflix
    Clone High Series Premiere: Tuesday, Max
    The Flash Series Finale: Wednesday, 8:00 PM ET on The CW
    The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Series Finale: Friday, Amazon Prime Video

    An Evening

    2023 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards: Sunday, 9:00 PM ET on Shudder
    Mayans M.C. Season 5 Premiere: Wednesday, 10:00 PM ET on FX

    A Full Day

    Merpeople: Tuesday, Netflix
    Smartless: On the Road: Wednesday, Max
    The Ultimatum: Queer Love: Wednesday, Netflix

    Up Next

    Succession Series Finale: Sunday, May 28 on HBO
    Barry Series Finale: Sunday, May 28 on HBO
    I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson Season 3: Tuesday, May 30 on Netflix
    Ted Lasso Season 3 Finale: Wednesday, May 31 on Apple TV+

    Dennis Perkins is a freelance entertainment writer with bylines at The A.V. Club, Paste, Ultimate Classic Rock, The Portland Press Herald, and elsewhere.

    TOPICS: American Born Chinese, The Clearing, FUBAR, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Platonic